“John Samford, unless you know what the purpose of the COP was how in the hell can you be so certain the officer who selected the location for it has his head up his arse?”
Because he put it in a valley surrounded by hills. Ever hear of Little Big Horn?
How about Dien Bien Phu? Lots of other battles where somebody got caught in a low spot surrounded by high spots. Thousands, most likely. Hard to tell, since mostly there are no survivors, although sometimes, the fortunes of war smile on the fool that got stuck in that position. It’s the sort of thing one does to an enemy that is stupid enough to put themselves in that position.
No, any OP ( excuse me, nowdays a COP) needs to be on the highest and most defensible terrain around.
In high rough country, it is normal to use the vallies as roads, since it save time and energy. If you have ever humped a 90 Lb. pack up 45 to 60 degree grades you will know what I’m talking about.
This is the ‘gan. Men have been fighting there for the last few thousand years. That little gully ( not sure it’s big enough to call a valley) going East has prolly been a smugglers trail for thousands of years, ever since somebody declared themself King and put out a list of banned thingies.
If we were to do some digging thereabouts, I woldn’t be surprize to turn up Greek, Persian and Mongal artifacts.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dien_Bien_Phu
Here is another you might have heard about. This worked out better then most, since the hills were only on one or two sides.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rorke%27s_Drift
You don’t have to be a genuis to know that setting up a defense where you can be shot at BUT NOT SHOOT BACK is folly.
Back on the map, where that E-W gully hits the valley there is a nice sized hill (2200 meters) that would be ideal for an OP. You have LOS up the gully and perhaps a little ways along the valley. Site a small mortar there and you can put rounds on any smugglers coming your way. Getting water and ammo up there will be a bitch without a helio, but it’s doable.
I was thinking lazy because there might not be heilo support and the zero in charge might not want to climb that hill. I know the grunts didn’t.
